One of Auckland’s biggest completed public transport projects in recent years gets its first big test on Monday, with the start of Western Express services along an “interim” northwestern motorway busway.
Auckland Transport hopes its biggest public transport upgrade in six years, will attract more than one million extra bus trips a year around west Auckland and into the city centre.
The [Western Express (WX) service](https://at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/west-bus-services/new-west-bus-services-for-west-and-northwest-auckland) is the lynch pin of 20 restructured routes in the west, aimed at having more frequent, and more reliable services into the city centre, in a $100 million upgrade.
Buses will travel between Westgate and the central city at 10 minute intervals from 7am-7pm on weekdays, 15 minutes intervals off-peak, separated from general traffic for much of the route.
The upgrade is a “quickie” fix to improving public transport to the outer west and northwest, after more than a decade of stop-start planning on both a full busway, and a possible Light Rail line.
